Rant.... Hope bars made in tawian....give me a free headset....

How do you view this, some people seem almost offended by the idea, not exactly any of our business but they do make an almost obsessive deal about making things in the uk usually.... sign of things to come?

On a side note, i want a new headset and works are giving one away if they reach 600 on fb so like them or whatever you do and give me a chance to get one as a freebie

What's wrong with supporting British manufacturing when you have a chance?

With the exception of Renthal, does anyone make handlebars in the UK? There isn't a bicycle handlebar manufacturing industryt o supourt! It's not like everything else they make which can be knocked out of a CNC mill or lathe is it? It'd be a whole new set of machines to make one product (and the machines may well be made elswhere and not require a huge ammoutn of skilled opperator input).

I'm all for suppourting British 'industry', but the value added is in the design industry. The day we have Tiawan designed Bitish made components then you know the economy's hit the shitter.

I don't really have much idea of what goes into an aluminium handlebar but as it's a new product line it would be a bit risky to buy all the machines in and then learn how to use them etc instead of going to a company with all the machines and years of experience manufacturing bars and QCing of them.

It makes a lot of sense. Lots and lots of people want a Hope 'cockpit' and the obvious hole in the line up is bars. Most folk don't get a monkeys where the bars are made, but care deeply that they say 'Hope' on them.

The product manager wouldn't be doing his/her job properly if it didn't get into bars.

All they need to do now is bring out a Reverb/Lev beating dropper post and I can see a lot of people running all Hope finishing kit. I guess with the drive train plans they will have a good % of a bike.

800mm width? No singletrack riding with those - My Havens are 711mm according to specs & they're wide enough that a couple of local singletrack track spots require the bike to be steered through with a steer from one side to the other along with a lean, to ease the bars through as the bars are wider than the gap.
Can't see the issue with made in Taiwan - most stuff is these days. I buy for how well the kit works, or at a budget, not for where it is made.
Do you drive a British made car too?

For the UK market, whilst not everyone is bothered by it, the fact the manufacture in the UK is a selling point for many purchasers. Once that is lost, they no longer have that point to make them stand out.

Think of Marks and Spencers - their target market loved the fact that their beige slacks were made in the UK. They then decided better margins were elsewhere and sold non UK goods. They then lost much of their loyal fan base and they did not have the right image to attract enough new custom.

If I was given the choice between a UK made Cotic Soul and a Taiwan made one, then I would pay an extra amount for the UK one (not too much though! - perhaps 100 pounds?).

The problem is you pay more for stuff made in the uk like hope and orange because they have more overheads and its made by skilled professionals working in the right conditions getting paid a decent wage not £2 a day. If there having stud made surly they can't charge the price they do for there made in the uk stuff